Posts Tagged ‘Arrested Development’

Much as it did with The Killing and Arrested Development, Netflix has decided to give a cancelled series a new lease on life. Well, for at least one more season anyway. That series? Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

That’s right, the streaming service will unleash a 13-episode sixth season of the animated series next month. The season will be called Titled The Lost Missions which promises to reveal “some of the deepest mysteries of the conflict between the light and the dark sides of the Force leading to a series finale.”

“An intrepid clone trooper discovers a shocking secret, Anakin Skywalker’s closest relationship is tested to its limits, and what Master Yoda discovers while investigating the disappearance of a Jedi could forever change the balance of power in the galaxy.”

Sounds good, right? We really hope this is a success because then it could open up other opportunities for canceled series that didn’t get a proper send off.

By now you’ve heard the great news: Arrested Development is coming back. We have Netflix to thank for the returin of one of the funniest shows to grace our TV screens in a long time and that day of return is fast approaching.

To get things started off on the right foot, there’s a brand new teaser for the new, 15-episode, season of the show. In it you’ll see the entire Bluth family is back (as well as a host of other famous faces) and still, thank goodness, just as quirky and funny as ever.

As with House of Cards, Netflix will release all of the new episodes simultaneously on May 26. In the meantime, check out the teaser after the break.

Many TV series deserve to be canceled. Some don’t resonate with audiences or have unappealing characters or a ridiculous premise. Or, they just plain suck. Arrested Development is not one of those series.

Fortunately, even though it was initially canceled by Fox, the series has found a new lease on life at Netflix. And now, that lease is about to pay off for fans as Netflix has official announced the premiere date of Sunday, May 26th for all-new episodes of the show.

But wait, there’s more. Not only has the official premiere date been announced, Netflix has also decided to increase the number of episodes (which had started at 10 and was raised to 14 in January) to a new number: 15. All episodes of the new season will be available simultaneously on launch day, which is the same thing Netflix did with House of Cards.

“Arrested Development is now widely viewed as one of the top TV comedies of all time and Mitch Hurwitz is bringing it to Netflix in a brand new way, crafted for the on-demand generation that has come to discover the show in the years since it last appeared on TV,” said Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer for Netflix. “The highly anticipated return of this show is sure to make history all over again.”

Said Hurwitz, “Ted said that? Wow. Well don’t print this obviously, but he’s going to be immensely disappointed”. He then added that “in truth we are doing something very ambitious that can only be done with Netflix as partners and on their platform. Finally my simple wish for the show is coming true: that it be broadcast every second around the clock to every television, computer or mobile device in existence.”

There is new Arrested Development coming, it is safe to say the world has moved past jubilant bewilderment and now are fully engaged in eager anticipation. With the new season debuting on Netflix in the spring we are starting to enter the advanced promotion corridor that gives us gems like this.

Entertainment Weekly has a couple of cast photos to promote the upcoming season and they are at least two-thirds as funny as the show itself, which is a complement if you know the hilarity the show reaches. The publicity pics are of the family Bluth decked out in some very dapper duds. With the popularity of shows like The Tudors and The Borgias, maybe they producers are hedging their bets and leaving open the possibility of resurrecting the show back in time should the next season under perform*.

The cast looks great, and it is great to see them all together again in a context that is not lamenting its premature cancellation. You can take a look at the full images after the jump.

As we previously reported, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson was in the running to helm Brett Ratner’s Hercules. Now Johnson has officially signed on for the titular role of Ratner’s Hercules film and has also signed on to do an adaptation of the graphic novel Ciudad.

Many fans are excited about the change in career choices that Dwayne Johnson has been making as The Rock is choosing more action films rather than Tooth Fairy 2. With Faster and Fast Five under his belt, as well as the upcoming G.I. Joe:Retaliation and Pain and Gain, Johnson is going back to his action roots for these 2 films.

Ciudad is an action-thriller adaptation of the upcoming Oni Press graphic novel of the same name.

Arrested Development is one of those series not really appreciated in its time. When it was on the air originally, it had rather low ratings and was cancelled by Fox after three seasons. It was a great show but sadly, a lot of people just didn’t “get it.”

Since its original run, the show has enjoyed newfound success in reruns as well as on DVD and Netflix and has attained cult status among those who appreciate great TV. There’s also been talk of a movie version of the series for years as well and now it seems those plans are finally coming to fruition.

But wait, there’s more. According to reports the show’s creator, Mitch Hurtwitz, plans to bring the Emmy-winning series back to television for 9 or 10 episodes before making movie. That’s right, a new series and a movie. Awesome.

Hurwitz didn’t say where the potential series would air but reportedly the two front runners are Netflix, which is looking for original programming, and Showtime, whose new entertainment president David Nevins used to work at Imagine TV and served as an executive producer on the original series.

Original series star Jason Bateman also confirmed the news on Twitter. “It’s true,” he posted. “We will do 10 episodes and the movie. Probably shoot them all together next summer for a release in early ’13. VERY excited!”

Those who watch NBC comedies Parks & Recreation, Community and Saturday Night Live know that some of the considered “favorites” of those shows consist of Donald Glover, Andy Samberg, Bill Hader, and Aubrey Plaza. Sure, there are a few others, but now we’re getting all of these names in one place with the new indie comedy The Hand Job.

Hader’s wife, Maggie Carey, is set to write and make her feature directorial debut on the coming-of-age story; Plaza will star as a type-A valedictorian who’s determined to lose her virginity before leaving for college. Project does not have a start date yet, as financing is still coming together.

In case you haven’t been keeping up, we’ve been bringing you tons of great interviews with the cast of Adult Swim’s newest series, Children’s Hospital. We’ve already spoken with Ken Marino, Paul Scheer, and the lovely Lake Bell, so today we go straight to the man on top, Rob Huebel.

Many remember Rob as one of the founding members of MTV’s Human Giant, but he’s probably known best for being in just about everything that has to do with comedy on TV in the past 5 years. From Arrested Development to I Love You, Man to 30 Rock, American Dad, The Office and countless others. Huebel is certainly a character actor who gets around.

It seems that he’s most recently found a home on Rob Corddry’s Children’s Hospital as the clueless Dr. Owen Maestro, the melodramatic love interest of just about every female lead on the show. We spoke with Rob about Hospital as well as a few of his upcoming projects that we were pretty excited to hear about.

Check out the full interview after the jump and be sure to catch an ALL NEW season of Children’s Hospital this Sunday, August 22nd at 10:30 PM, only on Adult Swim.

This weekend may be a tough decision for many moviegoers, as Eat Pray Love and The Expendables open against fan favorite Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. We know which we’ll be seeing (probably all three), but in the meantime, we’ve got some awesome clips from Pilgrim which should get you ready for the movie.

In the film Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) must defend his love for new girl Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) by defeating her seven evil exes. Those exes include names like Chris Evans, Brandon Routh, Jason Schwartzman, and more.

In the clips we’ve got for you, you can see Cera actually show some emotion other than empathy, which is a pretty big leap if you’ve seen his other films. Fun fact for all of you Arrested Development fans: Mae Whitman, who plays evil ex Roxy in the film has worked with Cera before, as Ann (“Egg”) on Development. We can assure you that they won’t be making out in this one.

The film is based on the comic series by Bryan Lee O’Malley and comes from director Edgar Wright, the mind behind other fan faves such as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Check out all four clips from the movie after the jump. See Scott Pilgrim take on the seven evil exes this Friday (That’s tomorrow).

There aren’t a lot of movie or TV franchises that help shape the world of science fiction for all future properties. Star Wars and Star Trek obviously had a lot of influence, as did others like Blade Runner or even, to a lesser extent, the more recent Avatar. One show that should not be overlooked on this list is the 1980’s series Max Headroom.

The show took the concept of cyber terrorism and technological advances to a whole new level at the time, opening the doors to loads of references to the subject of subliminal messages in a media driven world. Taking place “20 minutes in the future,” the show follows hard news journalist Edison Carter, who gets taken out during a sting to uncover a new subliminal commercial that kills it’s viewers.

The company that obtains Carter attempts to expose downloads his memories into a computer-generated program (years before this was common to us geeks) which calls itself Max Headroom. From there, the show’s focus falls mainly on Headroom and his comedic “Greek chorus” narration of the episode.

The cast alone was enough to get any non-fan interested. Featuring a pretty geek-friendly cast lead by Matt Frewer, who true nerds remember from Watchmen and the Fox TV movie Generation X. Along for the ride is the late SNL member Charles Rocket, love interest from the epic Flash TV series, Amanda Pays, and the always lovable Jeffrey Tambor as “Murray.”

The show became more than law to many sci-fi and fiction fans at the time, years before things like Quantum Leap and VR-5 dominated the minds of fans everywhere. For years, people would have to get their Max Headroom fix from brief clips on YouTube and rundown copies in basement comic conventions. Not any more, as Shout! Factory released the complete series on DVD for the first time yesterday.